If you don't feel like reading the story, but are curious to hear the song, please scroll WAY down to the end of this entry, and there will be a link for you.

The Who & Why & What

Some very dear friends were going to move away.  This wasn't the kind of move where the prospect of never seeing them for the rest of my life was a possibility (although in the midst of a pandemic now, who knows), but this move was far enough away that visits would be few and far between.  So, as one does, I was considering a gift.  Here's the problem... gift giving is hard for me, more so in a situation where distance is involved.  Food/drink gifts, while delicious, don't last very long.  I don't have the wherewithal to come up with practical household gifts, and besides, they were already settled in a home, they were just going to a different home and ostensibly bringing their stuff with them.  Not being able to turn my brain off at night is a nearly quotidian issue for me, and many nights the question of what kind of gift to give was the source of my insomnia.  What could I - a generally useless and insignificant being - possibly give someone without it being hackneyed or trite?  Hey, I write songs.  How about a bespoke song?  That's unique and that's sincere, which means the proper sentiment gets across no matter how awful it ends up being.  Ok, problem solved, now to work...

The Where

I knew the destination of the move.  That being the case, I did more reading about the location than I'd like to admit, looking for extra details that I might be able to shoehorn into a song.  Relevant lyrics from the song:

Say hello to the Badlands
Prairie dogs and Minuteman
Needles in the Black Hills
Porcupines with their quills

Say hello to the Big Bird

I'm not going to spell the place out to you, I'm going to depend on your profound knowledge of geography and history - or conversely, your Google skills - to tell you The Where.

The How

Brainstorming sessions. Writing text.  Editing text into lyrics.  

Deciding on a mood.  Well, it's somewhat melancholy, but hey, they're not dying - at least not any faster than the rest of us are - and we very well might cross paths again.  Ok then, minor key for the verse, then have a pre-chorus that modulates from minor to major, then major key in the chorus in order to give that optimistic and hopeful feeling.  Settled.  Pick the chords.  No, not that one.  Yes, that one.  Ok.  Chords.... find a melody.  Agonize over the piano at finding a melody.  Have a look at those lyrics.  Oh, that's not good enough, and that won't work with the melody.  Edit the lyrics again.  Gently massage the lyrics and the melody until they are able to combine.

Back to the lyrics.  How do I say "I love you and I will miss you" without explicitly saying those words?  We're writing songs here, need to be artistic and just a tiny bit oblique.  Ok, well, the general purpose of the song is as a goodbye present, how about making that the theme?  Enter my interest in etymology.  (If you think that word should contain an "n", well, that really bugs me.)  The word "Goodbye" literally means "God be with you"... over the centuries English has shortened that four word farewell into one seven letter word.  Ok now I have my chorus hook.

Goodbye means God be with you
God be with you as you go
Goodbye is temporary
Just until the next hello

The When

There is more than one When.

The first... well, there was a moving day.  I wanted to have the song finished, recorded, and gifted by moving day.  I finished the song probably a week before the departure, as far as the final first draft.... then spent time messing around with the arrangement or the lyrics, not liking the edits, revising back to the original idea, pruning here and there again... yeah, it's a process.  By no means am I an engineer, but I recorded the song at home the way I do all of my demos... I even threw on some vocal harmonies.  I bounced it to mp3, and emailed it to my friends on the day they left.  Mission accomplished.

The other When.

I was putting songs together to take to Patrick Himes at Reel Love Recording Company in February 2019, in preparation for tracking on my second solo album.  "Goodbye", well, I didn't hate it.  It kept growing on me.  I thought it had potential given the right instrumentation and production.  I brought it with me, along with a bunch of other songs on pre-production day.  It survived the initial cut down... and as tracking started on a few songs and an album began to take shape, I ended up thinking that this one absolutely HAD to be on it.

There were obstacles.  I wrote this song on piano, but I do not have the piano chops to do it justice.  Patrick plays piano - because Patrick plays everything - but he had done that previously on "Convalesce" (from Defacing the Moon), was already playing acoustic guitar and pump organ on this one, and I wanted the chance to work with another talented musician who I admire.  I decided to ask Nathan Peters.  You might know him from such bands as Vinyl Dies,  Lioness, TV Queens, and the legendary Captain Of Industry. Nathan so kindly said yes, and between the chord chart and my very very low quality home recording, was able to figure out what the song needed from the piano part.

Ah, the bass part.  Well, I wrote the song on piano, and was unable to come up with an accompanying bass part that I thought was good enough.  I reached out to Eric Cassidy for ideas.  He had a great idea, and was kind enough to record a video of himself playing the idea slowly enough that I could learn it.  One problem, it involved a quick note change that required holding a chord shape for the change... this type of thing is baby easy for guitarists - and for bass players that are much more talented than me - but I don't often play chords, and when I do, I certainly don't slide around from chord to chord.  Great idea, how to execute cleanly?  It turns out that I couldn't execute it cleanly.  Every time I would play it, I'd either mess up the chord shape on the slide, or make too much fret noise, or not have all of the notes held well enough so that one of them wouldn't sound muddy.  Here's where the studio magic comes in... I played the root note of the chords, then we used overdubs for the harmony notes.  I'm not ashamed to admit it, I'm just not good enough to do it another way, it is what it is.  We got the sound we needed to get.

The vocals.  Take after take after take.  When flat, try again.  When sharp, try again.  My verse harmonies worked out ok.  Patrick had a fantastic idea for an additional harmony in the verse that I hadn't considered... after he sang it for me a few times so I could get it, I went and recorded that as well.  What we have now are really nice harmonies in the verse with three parts, and all of the parts are me.

(I feel I should mention and thank community drummer Brian Hoeflich here, but make clear that there was no obstacle whatsoever as far as his part is concerned.  He did - as per usual - excellent work.)

The Summary

"Goodbye" is track 3 on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.  (If you have the Deluxe Version on CD, it is track 11.)  I am proud of it.  I said what I needed to say, which is the main point of writing songs.  The recording sounds clean, and makes me seem like a much more talented musician than I actually am.  Sure, I didn't actually HAVE to professionally record this song... but I thought the song was good enough to deserve it, and the folks I gifted it to deserve to hear it at its full potential instead of only the horrible version I did at home.

Click here to listen to "Goodbye" on the platform of your choice.

Those of you who live in the Dayton area and follow local music are probably already familiar with Doctor Art Jipson, but for readers who are not, I offer a brief introduction.  Doctor Jipson is a professor at the University of Dayton with expertise in sociology and criminal justice.  Yeah, heavy stuff.  When he is not shaping young minds in the classroom, he is shaping them via music, as he is DJ on a WUDR program called Your Tuesday Afternoon Alternative.  I think it's fair to say that there isn't anyone who cheers louder for independent musicians from Dayton and around Ohio than Dr. J.   

Recently, Dr. J has been playing "I Am a Number" on his show.  Now, I didn't release or advertise that particular song as a "single".  All of Anxious Inventions & Fictions is FCC friendly, so all of it could conceivably receive radio play, and while I encourage the folks at college and indie radio who receive the album to play whatever they want, most often folks don't get past the "singles".  Dr. J plays the music he likes, the music that moves him, and I am thoroughly pleased that he likes "I Am a Number" enough to give it airplay.  That being the case, as a gift to him - and also to all of you out there - here's the story of that song.  I hope you enjoy the story, and I hope you like the song as much as Dr. J does.  (Thank you, Dr. J.)

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Ten dollar book filled with twenty cent words
Juxtaposed only to make it absurd
Carelessly tripping your way around diction
Turning your stories from fact into fiction

I had the above lyrics sitting around for several years.  Despite what they sound like given today's climate, they are not about any political figures.  Those lyrics were originally about a certain social media platform with the word "book" in its name, and about how people would share things that are verifiably false or absolute nonsense.  Note that again, I wrote these words long before it became common knowledge that social media is weaponized as a propaganda tool by all sorts of nefarious actors.  It took awhile before I was able to compose any music to fit the lyrics.  When I finally did, I had to simplify the lyrics a bit to make them fit the song, make them easier to sing (a nod to Greg Owens for the idea to turn "tripping" into "trip"), and create some extra alliteration ("stories" became "tale").

I composed the music on piano, like I often do.  The main riff consists of individual notes F, A, and C, followed by a G major chord and two F major chords.  Right from the beginning, I knew I wanted this to be a guitar rock song, and I knew I wanted it to sound like Knoxville's own Superdrag.  John Davis - formerly of Superdrag and currently the man behind The Lees Of Memory - is a strong influence on my songwriting.  You don't always hear it, but on Anxious Inventions & Fictions, that influence is clear on "I Am a Number" and "Promise".  In order to get to the sound I wanted, I recruited Tim Pritchard (who you might know from bands such as The Boxcar Suite and Shrug) to play guitar, since he loves the work of John Davis as much, if not more, than I do.  I told Tim that I wanted it to sound like a Superdrag song, and he knew what to do.  When there were questions about a tonal approach for some of the guitar parts, I asked him to imagine what Brandon Fisher would do, and away we went.

Also, community drummer Brian Hoeflich deserves a special shout-out here.  I asked him to do his best Don Coffey Jr. impression, and he did that.  However, I made an arrangement change at the last moment, in the studio... a couple of deviations from how I had done the demo.  I tried to explain it verbally, but the most effective way to show Brian what I was looking for was to sit at the piano and play/sing the entire song for him.  We went to the piano, he brought a piece of paper, and he charted the entire song as I played it and sang.

I had one music writer tell me that this song reminded him of Hüsker Dü.  Now, I have only listened to three or four Hüsker Dü songs, and although I know how respected Bob Mould is (I see you Joe Anderl), I have only listened to a couple of his solo albums.  I haven't listened to nearly enough of that band to be influenced by them directly... but I have 5 Superdrag albums, and have seen them 3 times... so, any Hüsker Dü influence one might hear in my music comes filtered through John Davis.

I had been playing this one out at Showcase Thursdays and other open mic events on piano before eventually getting in the studio with it.  Strangely enough, even though bass is my main instrument, I didn't write the bass line for the song until the day before tracking it.  Listen closely during the chorus, and you might notice that the bass notes follow the vocal melody, and not necessarily exactly what the guitars are playing. 

As they say, if you can't figure out what the product is on a given tool or website, then YOU are the product.  When it comes to social media, we are the product.  That's something worth keeping in mind.  Obviously, I use social media, I mean, you probably arrived at this blog post via a link from one of the sites where I maintain a presence. These tools have their uses, and I'm not trying to say that they are all evil all of the time.  What I am trying to say is best expressed in the song lyrics:

How great is your stake in me?
This is all marketing data for sale
How much will you lie to me?
This is all marketing, targeted offering
I am a number 

What?

The album title is Anxious Inventions & Fictions, which is a lyric taken from the piano ballad "Insomnia".  The album art looks something like this:

Megan Fiely, "Insomnia", 24" X 24", acrylic on canvas, 2020.

This album exists in two versions. 

First, there is a ten song digital version.  Do you remember my crowdfunding campaign in order to press vinyl from earlier this year?  That did not get funded, so the ten song digital version is what the album would have been on vinyl.  In order to duplicate the vinyl experience, after the fifth song finishes playing, press pause on your device, get up and walk around the room for thirty seconds to simulate flipping the record over, and then continue. 

Second, there is a twelve song deluxe version on compact disc.  This contains two additional songs, an alternate mix of the opening track "Your Anthem", and a different track order, for a custom listening experience. The CD also comes with a twelve page booklet, containing lyrics, liner notes, and art.  For both versions, the album is sequenced carefully, and the listener is meant to listen to all of the songs in order.

Who?

Mike Bankhead.  That's the name/logo on the cover.  I wrote and arranged the songs for the most part.  I say "for the most part", because TINO wrote lyrics and is featured on one song (you might remember a blog post about him), and Greg Owens co-wrote another song (you might remember a blog post about him as well).  Also, two songs feature string arrangements by the outrageously talented Blair Breitreiter.  But wait, there is more...

Here is a list of the wonderful folks who lent their time and talents to this album:

Eli Alban
Dustin Booher 
Blair Breitreiter 
Thad Brittain  
Chris Corn 
Ken Hall
Valentino Halton
Patrick Himes 
Brian Hoeflich
Chad Middleton
Kent Montgomery
David Payne 
Nathan Peters 
Tim Pritchard 
Tod Weidner 
Heather York

This album sounds good, mostly because of this list of humans.  For those of you who are not familiar with independent music in Dayton, you'll just have to trust me when I say that some of the finest musicians in our area are represented here.  

Also, a tip of the hat to Megan Fiely for the beautiful painting, and to Spencer Williams for the photography, layout, and design.

When?

There are some different answers to this question.  Let's start with making the album.  Tracking and mixing took place between February 2019 and February 2020.  That's a year of hard work, not just my own efforts, but also the people listed above, and specifically Patrick Himes as the recording and mixing engineer and David Payne as assistant engineer.

You can order this album on September 4th.  That happens to be Bandcamp Friday, when Bandcamp forgoes their customary cut of artist sales.  That means that all of the funds spent on Anxious Inventions & Fictions on that specific date go to me, and contribute to my ability to continue making art for you to enjoy.  If perchance you don't know where to find me on Bandcamp, here's the link for you to bookmark:

https://mikebankhead.bandcamp.com/

The official release date for this album is September 12th.  That is the day that you will be able to listen to it on the Bandcamp page I just mentioned.  That's also the day for which a safe, socially distanced, outdoors release celebration is planned.

For those of you who only listen to music via streaming services, you will find Anxious Inventions & Fictions available there on September 15th.

Where?

The album was recorded and mixed at Reel Love Recording Company in Dayton, Ohio.  Blair handled some additional recording of string arrangements at Bohemian Trash Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The album was mastered at True East Mastering in Nashville, Tennessee.

The socially distanced release celebration will happen at Yellow Cab Tavern on 4th Street in downtown Dayton.  Please note that the owners and staff at Yellow Cab care deeply about the health of our community, and require all visitors to wear a mask.  If you do not wear a mask, they will kindly ask you to leave.  Yellow Cab also has social distancing guidelines in place.  If you wish to know more about the precautions they are taking and how you can cooperate, please give them a call.  

Why?

There are those who think that music doesn't need a reason, because "l'art pour l'art", right?  I haven't thought about that particular worldview all that much.  I certainly have my reasons for making art.  

Songwriting is how I deal with stress and anxiety and depression.  Songwriting helps me to work through all sorts of emotional turmoil, and the catharsis that it provides is probably a net benefit to my mental health.  Songwriting is a way for me to say what I want or need to say, especially when nobody is listening.  Not all of those songs get recorded as demos at home, and even fewer of them make it all the way to the studio... but some of them do, and this is what  happens when they do.

I still believe in the idea of the album as an art form. That's not popular these days, as music is seen as a resource, a commodity, a value-less product, both by the companies who use it to make profit, and by the vast majority of music listeners.  I don't make pop music, so of course, I'm not making music for these people.  I make music first of all for me, because it's something I'm driven to do... and all of you other musicians out there, I see you nodding along.  Of course, I wish to share my art... well, the subset of it that I get around to thinking is of enough quality to warrant sharing... but if I write something I don't personally like, you won't be hearing it.  I won't write in a genre or in a certain way because it's popular, because I'm trying to get rich, or because I think it's what someone wants to hear.  You'll only be getting authenticity from me, thank you very much.

The above said, music is also a means of communication.  Thoughts, feelings, ideas, the concrete, the abstract, and just about everyone wishes to be heard, yes?  Maybe music is kind of a cry for help?  Tell you what, as soon as I get a therapist, I'll be sure to discuss this with them.

How?

You know, ever since I was a teenager, if I see that particular word all on it's own, I can't help but sing it.  I mean, I sing it inside my own head where nobody is listening, but it has to be sung.  How, you said you never would leave me alone....

So, how did this happen?  Lots of hard work.  I'm not exactly a gifted musician or songwriter, but I work at it, and I have some perfectionist tendencies, which means lots of editing and re-writing. A great deal of singing practice.  A great deal of singing the same parts over and over again, until Patrick would tell me that it's no longer pitchy.  All sorts of patience from Patrick Himes and the musicians who agreed to play for me.  Even more patience from my wife when I would be in the studio for long hours and obsess over details in mixes at home.

How? Time. Pain. Self-Doubt. Frustration. Tears. Stress. Study. Thought. Experimentation. Explanation. Sleeplessness. 

Anxious Inventions & Fictions is my best work.  That's what I think, anyway.  I hope you think so, too.

This is what Merriam-Webster says about the word  anecdote:  "a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident"

Let me tell you a short narrative of a biographical incident that is not amusing in any way.

A few years ago my wife and I were coming home from a brief trip to New York.  We ended up flying into Detroit, then renting a car to drive home.  As we were headed South on I-75, we were stopped by the Michigan State Police.  I was not in violation of any traffic laws.  You should know where this is going.  This armed person yelled and screamed at us, succeeded in intimidating my wife by saying we would be charged with "a felony" (which was complete nonsense), and was generally abusive.  I ended up handcuffed, illegally searched, and screamed at even when I complied with instructions.  After sitting for awhile in his vehicle, and upon him discovering that I am not, in fact, a criminal, he tried to get me to say that I understood why he had to stop me and cuff me and search me.  I didn't want any such discussion on his recording, so I remained silent.  Once he ran out of reasons to detain us any longer, he let us go.  No apology.  I asked Misty to get the entire interaction on video from the moment the lights and sirens went on, but she didn't do so.  I thought that armed person was going to shoot me and then excuse it with lies... I was armed, I was on drugs, I tried to take his taser, he feared for his life, I threatened him... as they do, they kill and lie about why they kill.  I tried to explain to Misty afterward that if he shoots me, it's her word against his, and nobody will believe her, so she needs to have these interactions on video to have a basis for a lawsuit.  At any rate, I am convinced that if she wasn't also in the car, I wouldn't be here today.

The above interaction completely ruined my day.  It made me angry, but of course, when you're dealing with an armed racist, you can't afford to be angry.  All of the adrenaline pours into your blood because you are in a true "fight or flight" situation, but either one of those options results in your execution.  Later, you get the shakes. I'm a songwriter, and that's how I process emotions and such, so the skeleton of what would eventually become "Anecdote" started that very day, still on I-75, still driving toward home.  It took awhile for me to edit and distill all of the above paragraph into a package that would fit neatly into a song, but it didn't feel complete.

Then I heard an interview that TINO did with Gem City Podcast.  I think it was this episode. He told one of his personal experiences with "driving while black", and I thought to myself that his story and his skill set would be the perfect addition to this song.  I reached out.  He agreed to come rap on my song.  

What we have now is a cross-genre collaboration called "Anecdote".  We both tell short narratives of a specific biographical incident.

You'll be able to hear this song soon.

I live in Ohio, which is one of 50 states in The United States.  It has been a long time since a war was fought within the borders of this country or state.  It has been so long that all of the people who fought in that war are long dead.  Now, I've visited plenty of other places where war has come much more recently.  For example, I happened to be in Sri Lanka when celebrations were planned to commemorate ONE YEAR since the end of their lengthy civil war.  I visited El Salvador once, and anyone there who was my age at the time would have had civil war as a back drop to almost half of their life.  I have visited France many times, have many friends there, and the folks who live there experienced devastating war fought in and around their homes, a war in which my own grandfather was a participant. War is a horrible, terrible, destructive, evil thing.  People who live where I live tend to forget that.  As a person who is a voracious reader of history, I haven't forgotten, and I ended up writing a song about it.

Here is a picture of the poem I wrote called "Ton Soldat", told from the point of view of a soldier who is sick and tired of war.

See the date on that?  February 9th, 1998.  I was 20 years old when I wrote that, I still had a brother, I didn't yet have gray hair, and I hadn't been to France yet.

When I was putting together songs for my debut album, Echo in the Crevices, I wrote music for this, and asked some of my dear French friends to have a look at the lyrics to ensure they made sense.  I applied their suggestions, changing out the verb "lutter" for "combattre" and "battre".  There were a few other adjustments made to fit the music and make the song flow better.  This song is now called "Le Soldat".  

When it came time to head to the studio, I knew I wanted a shoegaze feel, a wall of distortion and sound, but also laid back.  The bass was going to do most of the movement.  I remember asking Tod Weidner, who was kind enough to play guitar on this song, if he could play the guitar part whilst making sure the attack sound of the pick hitting the strings wasn't heard.  He did a great job with that. He also brought some ingenuity to the bridge, building the chords that I specified piece-by-piece, playing one note at a time during multiple takes... when all of the overdubs were done, we ended up with the sound of full chords.  Also, I figured that if you're going to write a song in French, you had better have some accordion in it, and Eric Cassidy helped me out with that.  Our community drummer, Brian Hoeflich, also added a nice touch to the bridge, laying heavily on the snare drum to give a military feel to the music, which was quite appropriate.

This song needed to be on the album, for its theme and its mood.  I didn't figure many people would like it, because, let's be frank, most people where I live do not listen to music that isn't sung in English.  This was the favorite song on the entire album for one reviewer in particular, and that surprised me. 

It is my hope that having this extra context helps you to hear this song in a new way.  Why not check it out on my Bandcamp page, on Spotify, on YouTube, on Amazon, or wherever else you listen to music?

I try to run these blog posts on Mondays, and I'm writing this one on Sunday evening, 19th April.  I'll start by thanking - from the bottom of my messed up heart - all of the kind folks who have supported this project so far.  

At the moment, we have $446 pledged out of the goal amount of $3400.  Perhaps you are wondering how I arrived at that number... well, here's the breakdown:

• $2000 to press vinyl.  (Note that I arrived at this number after shopping around and getting quotes from several companies that press vinyl.)
• $100 materials required to ship albums.  This is basically the boxes and packing material so the records don't break when I mail them.
• $500 estimated shipping cost.  Each time an album goes in the mail, there is a cost.  The farther it goes, the more the cost.
• $180 State of Ohio and Greene County tax.  Yes, as a business, I have to pay tax on all sales.  Pre-orders count as sales.
• $130 Kickstarter fees.  They take a cut, which is how they stay in business.
• $130 processing fees.  The folks that handle the fund transfer take a cut, which is how they stay in business.
• $360 promotion.  I had planned to split this between having a music video done and sending promo copies of the album to indie radio and music journalists.

All of that adds up to $3400.  Note that this amount is only for vinyl.  I'm going to have CDs made and will distribute digitally, and am paying for that myself.

So, the deadline for raising the funds is this Friday, 24th April, at the auspicious hour of 07:12.  Frankly, it doesn't look likely that we'll make the goal.  This is the risk you take when you try to crowdfund during a pandemic.  If the goal is not reached, I won't be pressing Anxious Inventions & Fictions to vinyl, short of some sort of art grant.  That makes me a little sad, as I would love to see Megan Fiely's beautiful artwork on a vinyl album cover, and I'd also love to hold my own music in my hands on wax.  Buy hey, the market is speaking, it is what it is.

If you were on the fence about supporting this project, what can I do to move you off the fence?  (This is, of course, assuming you are still gainfully employed.  These days, I understand that many people are not.)  Would hearing the first single from the album help?  Ok, you'll all end up hearing that one anyway eventually, yes.  Well, did you know I wrote a song called "Wapakoneta" (yes, like city) that isn't on the album?  It has an Americana feel... I tried to write a Jason Isbell song... and yes, I know that's not the sandbox I usually play in.  I'm going to make that song an exclusive bonus for anyone who backs this project.  Have anyone in your life who collects vinyl?  You know, Anxious Inventions & Fictions would make a great gift for them  Also, this would be a way to support a local independent business (namely You Could Be My Aramis Music, LLC), and also, support the arts.

I invite to you kindly take one last look at the rewards I am offering for pledges to this campaign.  Also, think about all that time that we'll probably all be stuck in quarantine again this fall/winter, and of how nice it would be to have another black circle to spin.

Again, for the folks who have already backed this project, I know who you all are by name, and I cannot thank you enough.  Thank you.  I won't forget.

Making an album is a long journey.  The time spent writing and re-writing, then re-writing again at home.  The arranging, which often requires another re-write.  The demos.  The gathering in the studio to discuss and plan.  Session after session after session with a whole bunch of really talented people.  Take after take after take of singing, repeating the process if you're a little sharp or a little flat.  The listening to studio bounces over and over and over and over.  The mixing.  That's my process and my journey at least.  Many musicians probably have it easier.  For me, it's a long journey, and it's hard work, and I wouldn't be able to do it without the help of a great many people.

I'd like to celebrate a little more than a year spent working on Anxious Inventions & Fictions by means of a photo blog entry.   

Let's begin:

This is engineer extraordinaire Patrick Himes adjusting the boom for Eric Cassidy on June 2, 2019.  Eric sang harmonies on "Bright Ideas".  Ultimately, that song didn't make it to Anxious Inventions & Fictions, but it is out right now as a stand-alone single.  Please click here to listen to it.

Here's Eric Cassidy again, this time holding an accordion.  He played this on June 30, 2019, during the outro on "Pauline".  You can hear this song on Defacing the Moon, as the songs from that album were chosen from these sessions.

This is Dustin Booher, with me on June 29,2019.  He is a fellow Xenian, and we have known each other since we were five years old.  He sang on "Sunday (That Pill)", which is on Defacing the Moon.  He also lent outstanding vocals to "Never Let Go", which is the 4th song on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.

There is Dustin in the background... and here is Tim Pritchard on July 27, 2019, playing guitar.  You can hear his fine work on "I Am a Number" and "Promise".

This is Jackie and Brandon, who are half of Westerly Station. I met them in Austin at the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference.  (I wrote about that before.)  Brandon is a fellow Ohioan, and we even grew up in the same county.  It was quite convenient that they came from their Texas home to Ohio when I was in the studio, and they had the time to stop by.  Brandon played mandolin on "Sunday (That Pill)", and it sounds great.  

Hello there, Ken Hall.  Normally, you can find him seated behind a piano, a task he performs in Shrug and Human Cannonball.  I invited him to play a little trombone.  You can hear Ken play for about a second and a half on "Your Anthem", which is the first track on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.

This handsome fella is Kent Montgomery.  He is the lead guitarist from The New Old Fashioned.   He was kind enough to play guitar on "Never Let Go", "Won't Love You Anymore", "Run To You", and "Wapakoneta".  That last song didn't make the album, but I will release it at some point.  

Here I am with Nathan Peters, who I've known over 20 years.  You might recognize him as the lead singer and keyboardist from legendary Dayton band Captain of Industry.  These days, he fronts Lioness.  He was kind enough to come to the studio and play piano on "Goodbye".  I wrote the song on piano, but I don't have the chops to give it the recorded performance that it deserves.  Thanks to Nathan's work, it sounds so very good.

The most recent photo.  January 23, 2020.  As you can see from the wood floors and the walls, this photo was taken after the great Reel Love flood and subsequent remodel.  (Scroll up to the first picture for the old school look of the main room in the studio.)  This was my last day in the studio for work on the album.  There was a mixing session after this, so the official end date was in February, but I didn't need to head down for that.  Patrick's steady hand guided me through this process, as he has done so many times for so many other musicians.  He has a fantastic ability to hear the song behind my low-quality home demos.  I can tell him what I am trying to accomplish as far as the sound I hear in my head is concerned, and he can figure out how to get me there.  This gentleman is a multi-instrumentalist, great singer, and true professional.  

I hope you have enjoyed this brief photo journey through a year's worth of work.  There are plenty of behind-the-scenes photos that I haven't even seen.  I have 5 disposable cameras that came to the studio with me, and they are filled with photos.  If you are curious as to what might be on them, they are available as one of the rewards on my Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund pressing Anxious Inventions & Fictions to vinyl.  Why not head over to the campaign and help me press some vinyl?

This song is on my upcoming album, Anxious Inventions & Fictions. It is the result of a songwriting exercise meant to combat writer's block... but strangely enough, I wasn't actually suffering from writer's block when I wrote this song. Let's set the scene... come to Nashville with me, to the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference in the summer of 2018.

One of the most useful sessions I attended was conducted by Shane Adams.  This gentleman is on the faculty at Berklee Online.  I had seen him speak the previous year, and he is humorous and engaging, energetic and open, and clearly quite knowledgeable.  This year, he was talking about a proven method of defeating writer's block.  At the time I sat through this seminar, I wasn't suffering from writer's block... I wasn't really trying to write songs at the conference... but in order to get the most out of the session, if there is an audience participation exercise, you need to participate.

I don't want to explain all of the things that were covered here, but let's briefly say that the method consisted of a series of letters.  No, not the twenty-six characters that make up the English alphabet, the method of communication before email, telephones, and telegraphs.  When I was much younger, I used to write letters often.  I would write to my friends both here in Ohio, in other parts of the United States, and overseas.  I couldn't even tell you how many scores of letters I've probably written.  That being the case, I took to this exercise rather well.

The phrase "she speaks in metaphor" came out of this exercise.  Wanna see?  Here it is:

At some point, I thought this would make an excellent song title.  Once I decided that, I needed a musical approach.  I decided to write this one on my bass instead of on the piano.  Further, as the song title seemed to me at the time that it would lend itself to a rather complicated idea, I wanted to make the song simple, and I wanted the bass to carry it.  For that reason, the verses consist of only one chord.  A minor.  That's it.  The bass line that carries the verses is moving through several of the notes in the A minor scale.  There is a bit more motion in the chorus parts as far as the harmony is concerned.  That settled, I used the piano to help me pick out a melody.  After I had a melody, then came the work to write lyrics to fit the melody and the theme.

This needed to be a rock song.  Ok, not just rock.  RAWK.  To that end, I recruited one of the finest bass players in Dayton, Chirs Corn.  (He has other talents as well.)  He used to play in a very loud, chaotic, experimental, post-punk outfit called My Latex Brain... and in this band, he would surround himself and his bass with what seemed like a hundred different pedals, and make the bass sound like a legion of guitars.  That's the sound I wanted on this song.  I also recruited Thad Brittain for more high frequency guitar work.  For the percussion end, I asked Brian Hoeflich to do his best Jimmy Chamberlain impersonation, and he obliged.

I am extremely pleased with the result.  If my Kickstarter campaign is successful and we get vinyl pressed, you'll be able to find it as the first song on Side Two of the album.  I can't wait for you to hear it.

February 17th, 2019.  That was the first day of tracking for my second solo full-length album.  A quick aside... it's awfully strange to call it a "solo" album, as I certainly couldn't have gotten it done without a great deal of help.  Patrick Himes, the engineer/producer.  Brian Hoeflich, professional drummer extraordinaire.  The other guitarists, vocalists, pianists, violinists, etc who are on the album: Eli Alban, Dustin Booher, Blair Breitreiter, Thad Brittain, Chris Corn, Ken Hall, Kent Montgomery, David Payne, Nathan Peters, Tim Pritchard, TINO, Tod Weidner, Heather York.  That's an awful lot of help for a "solo" album.

(I digress again.  This doesn't count the folks who helped out on songs that didn't make the album, but that I still plan on releasing.  I'll be thanking them all by name in the future, you can take it to the proverbial bank.)

Where was I?  Oh yes.  February 17th,2019.  Notice how in that first paragraph, I wrote the words "gotten it done"?  Yes, February 5, 2020 was the last mixing session.  The album is tracked.  The album is mixed.  A release date is in the future.  It is without a doubt my best work to date.  Wanna know what it's called?

Anxious Inventions & Fictions

That's a lyric from one of the songs.  Would you like to hear it on vinyl?  I would surely LOVE to press it to vinyl.

It turns out that you, yes you, can help to get this album pressed to vinyl.  I am launching a Kickstarter campaign to offset the expense of pressing vinyl.  It essentially functions as a pre-order... if you are interested in hearing my new album on vinyl, by all means, select a campaign reward that includes your very own copy of Anxious Inventions & Fictions.  There are a few different rewards that include the physical record.  For one of the rewards, I'll list your name in the liner notes expressing my deep gratitude for all the world to see.  I have five disposable cameras (remember those?) full of exclusive behind-the-scenes photos of the recording process... I haven't even seen these photos... those are possible rewards as well.

What if you don't have a turntable, but still want to help?  Well, one of the rewards is for a digital download of the album.  What if you just want to wait until the album is on Spotify or Pandora or Apple Music or YouTube?  Well, if you would like to support the effort of getting the album pressed to vinyl for other folks out of the kindness of your heart, there is a donation level for that.  Every little bit helps, you know.

Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing crowdfunding platform.  If we reach the funding goal, then I'll be able to get Anxious Inventions & Fictions pressed to vinyl.  If we do not reach the funding goal, nobody will be charged for any of the pre-orders, and the album will not be pressed to vinyl.  

If you didn't already click on the link above to go to the Kickstarter campaign, why not click it here to visit my pre-launch page?  The campaign goes live on Wednesday, March 25.  Please share with all of your music-loving friends.  Let's press some records!!!

In order to give you a peek behind the curtain at my songwriting process, I'd like to tell you about my second attempt at the 5 in 5 Song Challenge.  I have written about this challenge in a previous blog entry, so this time, I'll skip explaining the big idea and get straight to the songs.

Day 1, 14th October 2019.  Prompt was to use at least five of these ten words: creek, orange, cider, make, gather, cotton, oak, spinning, poured, without.  Amplifier bonus (which I don't recall being part of the challenge the last time I participated) was to use the chord progression Dbm, Fm, Eb7.

I'm proud of what I managed to write for this one.  I started with the chord progression, as I figured that would be the hardest part.  It was.  If you're not a musician, let me tell you that those three chords are kind of creepy and ominous sounding when used in sequence.  I structured my verses for the song around them, and managed to use all ten (!) of the words, which I believe is a first for me.  Here's the thing... using those specific words, but making it seem natural and not forced... that was tough.  All told, there is one part here that I will re-write.  I didn't like the melody I used in the bridge, so will go back to work on that.  Other than that, I think the rest of the song will stay as-is, and I'll be adding it to my live repertoire next month.  

Day 2, 15th October 2019.  Prompt was to use the following idea as a starting point:  It has to come to an end, before it can begin.  What is it?  (If that sounds to you like something Seneca might have said, well, you're not the only person who thought so.)  Amplifier bonus was to use a minor 4 chord.

For this one, I did not write fresh lyrics.  Rather, I used lyrics from my collaborator, Ruth.  She had lyrics that needed music, and when I saw the prompt, I remembered these specific ones, as I thought they fit.  Lyrics in hand, I wrote the music, which I found to be rather easy this time.  I mostly write in minor keys, and if you write in a minor key, your 4 chord is automatically minor.  Easy as pie.  From reading some of the comments in the group, I might be the only person who understood the amplifier this way, as a few folks asked for clarification, and the clarification was to take a major 4 chord and change it to minor... but that's not what the prompt said.  Maybe the default assumption is that people only write in major keys?  

Day 3, 16th October 2019.  Prompt was to use "Harvest Moon" as a song title.  Ick.  Amplifier bonus is to write in a key you're not comfortable in.  

Well, I'm not really comfortable in any key that requires me to use more than just the white keys on a piano.  I'm not a competent pianist by any means, so I feel all warm and fuzzy writing in A minor.  For this one, I wrote the song on bass instead of piano... and I wrote the verses in G minor, but the chorus in B flat major.  I leaned toward snarky and humorous for the lyrical content.  I think this song is the best one I wrote all week, and I plan to record it next year and get it ready to release in time for fall.  I'll be playing it in public starting next month.

Day 4, 17th October 2019.  Prompt was to use at least five of ten given words.  Now, I don't have the complete word list (oops), but here are the ones that I used: older, settle, calling, pocket, strong, resist.   That's six.   Amplifier bonus was to use this chord progression: F, G, Cmaj7, Am.

That chord progression basically told me to write the song in A minor, which as I mentioned above, is my warm & fuzzy key.  Ok.  I wasn't too thrilled with the list of words, but no matter, I got to work.  I used the fantastic closer from the album The Blinding White Of Nothing At All, "All You Really Want Is Love", as inspiration.  The main songwriter, John Davis, is a strong influence on my songwriting.  Now, the song in question (please listen to it) sounds like it was written in a major key, and I wasn't about to do that, but I did write the B part of the song to have a slight major key feel.  I wrote it in second person.  I also followed a similar structure. A B A B outro.  

I wanted to write a song that I love as much as I love most everything on that record, and I fell short of that goal.  However, I like what I came up with enough to add it to my live setlist starting next month.  It needs some light editing, but there is potential here.  I also feel that this is a good song for We Met In Paris, so I sent it over to Ruth.

Day 5, 18th October 2019.  Prompt was to use the following idea as a starting point:  she is strong as an old fallen tree, but hollow inside.  Amplifier bonus was to change key during the song.

This time, let's start with my overall goal.  I wanted to write a Guided By Voices style song.  I did that just a little bit on one of the songs from the last time I did this challenge, and after editing, it ended up being called "Huns of Doubt", and you will be able to get your hands on it soon.  This time though, I didn't want to use any non-sequitur chords or a crazy time signature.

Beyond GBV, I think of the Wright Brothers and aviation when I think of Dayton.  Transportation terms popped into my head.  I thought about calling it "Propeller", but that's the name of an early GBV album, so no, can't do that.  I thought about the airplane imagery in some of their songs and album artwork... then I decided to call the song "Submarine".  Boats are called "she" by sailors, right?  Submarines are strong, and hollow inside.  Ok, title achieved.  For the lyrics, I used terminology related to submarines as a metaphor for a break up.

Musically, well, doing a key change is not new to me.  For Prompt 2 during this challenge, I wrote the verses in minor and the chorus in major.  If you remember "Harvest Moon", I used relative minor/major keys.  For this one though, I did something I've never done before... I just moved the entire thing a whole step up.  I tried to be clever doing this... I have some harmony vocals in it, and one of the harmony vocal lines, I keep it droning on the same note, before AND after the key change.  I think there is some potential here, and I might go to the studio with it next year sometime.

***

Summary.  Five days, five songs.  Three songs added to my live rotation, just as soon as I learn them well enough to play them from memory.  All of the songs will need to undergo a little bit of editing, but I don't foresee a major re-write on any of them.  I felt more comfortable doing this challenge than the previous one.  It would seem that all of the songwriting work I have been doing is paying off... I'm getting better at my craft.  That said, there is always always always room for improvement, and I'll probably jump on future challenges like this in an effort to do just that.

If you would like to hear these songs, I encourage you to sign up for my mailing list on the homepage of this website.  At some point, I'll be sending them as gifts to the folks who are subscribed.

I've been working hard in the studio, supported by Patrick Himes and a rotating cast of other Dayton musicians.  I've already mentioned that I have a split album coming out on Local Music Day.  I have five songs on that compact disc.  That left 20 songs.

20 is a lot of songs.  From that group, I've decided not to do any tracking at the moment on 3 of them.  I either want to give more consideration to the arrangement (looking at you, "Podiacide") or try to improve the lyrics (this means you, "Let's Go"), or perhaps even do a complete re-write (this could be you, "Rock Show").  Ok.  20 minus 3 is 17.  

This is the group of songs from which I will attempt to put together an album that will take you, the potential listener, on an adventure.  Some of them are finished... mixed and everything.  Some of them have drums and bass tracked, but need the rest of the instruments.  Just three of them are still waiting on me to record a bassline.

I won't pretend to know when I'll have this ready for release... but it certainly won't be this year.  More updates to come.

Here's a brief progress update on album #2. I have the first mixes back for two of the songs, "Bright Ideas" and "She Speaks in Metaphor". At this point, I'm not sure if either one of them will even make the album, but I love the way these sound. Patrick Himes continues to do great work.

We are almost finished tracking the drums for all of the songs that are in consideration... I expect to get that done this week. As usual, Brian Hoeflich has been professional and brilliant at that task.

Between now and the end of the month, I have 4 studio sessions scheduled. The plan is for a great deal of bass to be played, and some guitar/keyboard parts to be added. Hopefully by the time July begins, I'll have a handful of other songs ready to be mixed.

As far as naming the album is concerned... well, I have some ideas on that. I'm not ready to share them yet, but maybe I'll make a poll and get some feedback?

Does anyone remember 1996?  That was the year I graduated from high school.  Shortly after that, on 17th September to be specific, I wrote what you see in this image:

I always intended for most of the things I wrote to end up as song lyrics... but at the time, I didn't play any instruments.  

Fast forward to spring 2017.  I had just finished my first album, and I was getting it ready to release.  However, when you write songs, you can't stop writing songs.  I started looking through some of my older writing to find something that would make a little pop song... and I found this.

So, I had to change the name.  "Television Love Obsession" became "Little Light".  I had to update some of the references.  "Letters" became "email"... and, well, you can compare the current lyrics to the old ones by watching this video.

I wouldn't visit the studio with this song until 20th January 2019.  On that date, the lovely and talented Jeremy Raucci was kind enough to play the guitar for me, community drummer Brian Hoeflich knocked out all of the drums, and all tracking and mixing got knocked out in an eight hour session at Reel Love Recording Company.  (Shout out to Uncle Patrick.)  The end result is a slightly creepy pop song.  Please click the link above to listen and watch the lyric video if you haven't already.

I mentioned in a previous blog post that I am working on my second album.  I figured I would provide a brief update to current progress.

There are drums tracked so far for 13 songs.  Now, not all of these are destined for this album... in fact, two of them are for a different project.

I have tracked bass on 6 songs so far, and 3 of those have some guitar work done, but there is always room for more.

So far, I feel like this is progressing in a somewhat more organized manner than my first album.  Part of that is due to me being just a bit more experienced now.  A major contributing factor is also the pre-production session that happened before we started tracking... and I'm trying to be careful with making sure I document everything that happens and note all of the little ideas that come to mind during the sessions.  I can almost see the outlines of an album beginning to take shape.

Of course, I have many many more songs than will fit on one album, but this is a bridge to be crossed later.  For now, please be assured, dear reader, that I am satisfied with the current progress, and that some very nifty sounds have been recorded.  I think you'll enjoy this one, whenever I can get it to you.